Ever since longtime publisher William S. Morris III sold The Augusta Chronicle and later stepped away from editorial control, employees, content and circulation have greatly diminished. During that transition to new ownership, though, one of the few bright spots left within The Chronicle pages was veteran political columnist/reporter Sylvia Cooper. But yesterday, in her often blunt “watchdog over government” Sunday column, she announced her resignation in disgust.
The column that ran yesterday was only part of what she had originally wrote. “Without communicating with me at all, the editors cut more than half of what I wrote,” she explained. “I suppose because it painted an unflattering, but true, picture of the vacant buildings and awful neglect on Broad Street in downtown Augusta.” She continued that “I have never had most of anything else I wrote for The Chronicle slashed like that without the courtesy of an explanation, so I have resigned…I have enjoyed my 30-year career there and will miss you terribly. I do want you to read what I wrote that was cut from my column, so I am posting it below.”
And here are major excerpts:
“We dropped our van off to be serviced in downtown Augusta last week, and later that afternoon we had a little time before we were supposed to go pick it up. So I said to Ernie, “Let’s go to Broad Street. I want to see what’s going on.”
“I was thoroughly expecting it to be thriving since I’ve read so much about businesses locating there and so much traffic that Mayor Hardie Davis pushed for parking meters to manage the dire parking shortage there.
“Was I in for a surprise. It took a few minutes for it to sink in how terrible it looked. As we drove from Fifth Street on the north side of Broad to 13th Street and back down the south side of Broad to Fifth Street, I counted 75 empty store fronts and buildings, one with a broken plate-glass window. …
“The south side wasn’t as bad as the north because of the Frog Hollow Tavern, Farmhaus Burgers, the Whiskey Bar and a few other nice places on upper Broad. The Richmond County Board of Education salvaged the corner it’s on, Rubens Department Store is still there, and the J.B. White building renovation is nice, as is the restored Miller Theater and the Imperial Theater on the other side.
“When I worked at the Chronicle Building on Broad Street, I often walked up and down counting the empty places and thought it was bad, but nothing like it is today. As we drove along, I said, ‘Oh, there’s the James Brown mural they just had done,’ and Ernie said, ‘All those millions of tourists flocking down her to see it is going to save Augusta.’
“’Maybe everything’s moved to Reynolds Street,’ I said. ‘The Cyber Center of Excellence and the Conference Center and all. ‘But we’re looking at Broad Street,’ he said. Later, I called a few folks and asked them whether they’d been to Broad Street lately and told them they ought to go look at it. They said they’d gone to eat at Frog Hollow but that was about it. One said, ‘I thought businesses were moving back to Broad Street.’ One of the people I talked to was the last surviving Broad Street expert in Augusta. “It’s “sad” for the 2nd largest metropolitan area in the state -really sad,” she said. “They’ll blame the coronavirus, but it was bad before that. …
“The ‘leaders’ have done nothing except discourage business from staying and opening on Broad Street. The street and sidewalks are dirty. The homeless pick through the trash cans. The curbs and gutters are usually dirty. The parking wells are dirty. Most of the time the fountains don’t work. The city trees aren’t pruned or cared for. And there is no bus service which is what contributed to the final demise of Broad Street.”
“So can anything be done?”
A true commitment to a city planner professional/urban developer with a proven track record of success could make all the difference in the world, she said. “Not the same old helter-skelter patchwork projects and wasteful retail and parking studies.”
“What have they done with the funds they’ve had? There is no accountability. The board has no vision. The last surviving Broad Street expert claims it’s the government’s responsibility to create an environment where business can thrive. ‘There aren’t any smart people left trying to survive on Broad Street. They all wisely took their money and left. Right now, it is at its lowest level, and it stinks.’
Cooper continues with a “Pop Quiz.” She asks: Which of the following do you think Mayor Hardie Davis and Augusta commissioners are more interested in doing? a. Keeping the streets and sidewalks clean b. Having adequate garbage collection, especially for restaurants and bars c. Getting their friends with small businesses one of the free loans from the CARES Act money d. Keeping the fountains clean and in working condition e. Repairing the broken brick trim around the parking wells f. Preening and listening to the sound of their own voices in front of the camera at commission meetings g. Keeping the parking wells clean and the drains in working condition h. Making sure the streets are well lit, including the service streets I. Meeting behind closed doors and making deals via phone and emails j. Keeping panhandlers off the street so they don’t intimidate people by asking for money as they get out of their cars
“If you don’t already know the correct answers, go look around on Broad Street,” Cooper concluded.
Augusta talk radio host Austin Rhodes with WGAG 850AM is another “political watchdog” and he is outraged over the treatment of Cooper. He laments on his Facebook page: “The Augusta Chronicle’s management lost their (remaining) most visible and highly respected asset.”
